distributedlife

Writing a music story about an instrumental is probably not the easiest task in the world. Writing a music story about an instrumental that most people haven’t heard, even those that own the album the song is on, is going to be even harder. As a matter of fact; I’ve not heard the original of this song in several years now and I own the album. Each year it gets harder to find somewhere to listen to the song.

In 2003, I embarked on my Whirlwind Tour of Australia. I was going overseas the following year and wanted to make sure I had seen at least some of Australia before I left. So in just under three weeks I was to see Canberra, Sydney, Broken Hill, Adelaide, Kalgoorlie, Perth, Fremantle, Uluru, Alice Springs, Adelaide and Melbourne and a whole bunch of scenery in between. There was only one flight in all of that. Anyone who has done the Melbourne to Canberra bus-ride knows that I should have had two flights.

I had just arrived in Sydney and it was about midday. My train to Perth via Adelaide was due to leave about three hours later. I had already successfully ‘lost’ my watch to the dodgy guy next to me on the bus. It was only a $50 watch but it was still annoying. For some reason I like to start every trip with a lost possession. Scotland the following year it was my Ray-Bans.

I spent a few hours wandering around Sydney. Poking my head into shops, not buying anything and looking much the tourist. My soundtrack for this part of the trip was The Music’s self titled album. I had borrowed a friend’s CD player just for the trip. The sound quality was much better than the old no name brand I had at home. The Music’s album is great; I still love it today. Some of the more popular tracks still grate from the high playing frequency they endured on commercial radio. Other tracks like “The Dance”, “Take the Long Road and Walk It”, “Human”, “Float”, “Turn out the Light” and “Too High” are still great songs.

The first half of the album is excellent. “The Dance” starts of the album with an excellent distorted guitar intro setting up the album. “Take the Long Road and Walk it” follows up with some lyrics you can sing to. It can be hard to make out what the lead singer is saying in some tracks. “Float” is a song that initially appears weak in comparison to its neighbours but the longer the song goes on the better it gets. It reaches its crescendo before abruptly stopping and making way for the very chilled out and very good “Turn out the Light”.

I was sitting in the train station using one of the chair filled waiting rooms. It was empty. There were plenty of rooms and not that many travellers. The CD player was in my bag as I had probably just bought some food to eat. I could hear some music playing so I pulled out the headphones and had a listen to see if I would finish listening to the track. When I put the headphones in I couldn’t work out the track. It didn’t even sound familiar. I had to look into the CD case to work out whether I was listening to that CD. I kept listening to the end of the track and was blown away at how good the song was. Six minutes of excellent guitar and drums.

Towards the end of the song I noticed it was track one but the times were in the negatives. Somehow, whilst in my bag, the buttons had been pressed to rewind the first song. That was really a piece of random luck. On top of this was the random luck I had to hear the song before the first song kicked in and the chance was missed. I rewound the CD and had another listen. Just as good the first time. I think I listened to it four or five times before picking up my mobile and sending a message to everyone I knew that had the album.

Most of them, even some people that didn’t have my name, just a random number on their phone, found the album and put it on. About six or so minutes later I started getting some responses. “That track is sweet.”, “nice 1″ and ”I don’t know who you are but thanks!”

Rather than sending another message I rewound the first track again. Closed my eyes and listened.

Why is this track so hard to play? I no longer have that CD player. It’s more than five years since that trip. I don’t have any CD players that can rewind the first track, or play the pregap as it is called. The number of people I know that can play it is diminishing as well. There is a live version on YouTube I have linked to. It’s not as good quality as the CD version but it’s better than not hearing it at all.